Online counselling for MBBS: SC seeks MCI take

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought Medical Council of India's response within two days  to a proposal from Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) for maiden online counseling for allotment of over 2,000 MBBS and BDS seats in medical colleges from this academic session. 

A bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar sought medical education regulator MCI's response by Thursday, when it would examine the DGHS proposal for doing away with existing mode of counseling that require candidates to appear in person. 

Delhi used to be the main centre from where allotment of 15% all-India quota of MBBS and BDS seats in various medical colleges used to take place, with candidates participating in counseling through video  conferencing from other centres like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. In 2011, DGHS conducted counseling for 4,150 candidates for 2,194 seats in MBBS and BDS courses. 

Till now, the candidates used to take long journeys up to six times from their home towns to the metros within a short period of time to attend counseling sessions. "The expenditure for candidates during online counseling will be almost nil and much less for the government. The online counseling process will be faceless yet fully transparent and fair," the DGHS promised. 

The proposal for online counseling was recommended by an expert committee headed by Director General of Health Services, which was tasked by ministry of health and family welfare to find out ways and means to address the problem of seats remaining vacant even after two rounds of counseling every year. 

In its application before the apex court, the DGHS said: "The committee has recommended that by changing the method of allotment from existing counseling by personal appearance to online counseling and by increasing the number of candidates eligible to take part in counseling both in undergraduate and post-graduate courses may significantly reduce the number of seats that remain unfilled at the end of All India quota counseling." 

The salient features of the proposal for online counseling are: 

* All candidates who qualify All India Undergraduate Entrance Examination or five times number of seats available under the all-India quota, whichever is less, will be allowed to take part in online counseling. 

* Qualified candidates will give option of course and college online. There will be a total of three rounds of online allotment instead of existing two. 

* After the first round, candidates will be given provisional allotment letter online and will be required to report to the allotted medical/dental college within 10 days. The respective colleges would check the documents of eligibility of candidates. 

* Candidates, who fail to take admission in 10 days, would forfeit their claim for admission and would not be considered for allotment of seats during subsequent rounds of counseling. 

* Candidates who join the course after the first round may give their option for upgrade of h/his choice of course or college to be considered during subsequent rounds of counseling subject to availability of seats. 

* Arrangement for online counseling process will be made by the National Informatics Centre, which conducts the online counseling for allotment of seats under All India Engineering Entrance Examination. 
dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com

40,000 candidates sit for MBBS entrance exam

Puducherry: As many as 40,000 candidates appeared for the enterance examination for admission to the first year MBBS course at the Jawharlal Institute of Post Medical Education and Research(JIPMER) yesterday.

The examination was held in 12 states all over the country including Delhi, Kolkotta, Pune, Bangaluru,Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.

As many as nine centers have been opened in Puducherry to conduct the exams. The examination is being conducted to fill up 145 seats in JIPMER, an institute of national importance.

The results would be declared on JIPMER website in a  couple of days, JIPMER sources said.

One-year rural posting made mandatory for MBBS students

New Delhi: Aspiring doctors will have to spend a year working in rural areas before getting their MBBS degrees, as the government has decided to make rural posting compulsory for them.

In a letter to the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Health Ministry has asked its Board of Governors to make rural posting for doctors mandatory and include it in the MBBS course curriculum.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said doctors will be attached with the Ministry's flagship National Rural Health Mission during the year-long rural posting which will also help improve health care services in villages.

Once this proposal becomes part of MBBS curriculum, a medical student, after completing 4.5 years of study and thereafter the hospital internship, will have to undergo a mandatory year-long house job in the form of a rural posting before getting the MBBS degree. Till then, the degree would be provisional.

Chairman of MCI Board of Governors K K Talwar told that the one-year compulsory rural posting for doctors is in the offing and modalities in this respect are being worked out. The posting would be made mandatory in a designated rural area.

“We are working on this. A mechanism is being evolved in this regard. An expert committee is looking into this and will recommend modalities in its meeting soon, after which the details worked out will be sent to the Health Ministry for its approval,” Talwar said.

Sources say the government is working to do away with the compulsory three-month rural posting during the year-long MBBS internship and the same will be made part of the one-year rural house job with an NRHM facility henceforth.

Talwar said this one-year mandatory rural posting will help aspiring doctors to learn from senior doctors who will act as mentors in the rural area. The MBBS graduates, he said, will be attached with a rural hospital and a nearby medical college during this one-year period.

They will also get a reasonable stipend from the NRHM for their services during this period, he said. Justifying the proposal, Azad said it takes almost seven years or even more to become a doctor and to actually get the permission to start prescribing medicines in developed countries whereas the MBBS course duration in India is much shorter.

The Minister said due to the shorter duration of the course here than in the developed nations, many students prefer to study MBBS course in India and then carry out higher studies abroad.

Talwar also said that it takes seven to eight years to obtain a medical undergraduate degree in most countries and studying in India is also cheaper than in the developed world.

“The rural posting will go in favour of students aspiring to be doctors as it will help them upgrade their skills when mentored by senior doctors. The provision will give them peripheral exposure while also granting them reasonable facilities where they can hone their skills,” he said. He said the Council will make all such recommendations to the Health Ministry soon before this proposal is implemented.

Government's efforts to attract doctors for rural postings through various incentives earlier did not yield any fruit, as there were no takers for 50 per cent reservation in postgraduate courses for MBBS doctors who opted for rural stints after taking undergraduate degree.

MBBS students who did a year of rural service were to get 10 marks as additional weightage in MD examination, while those who did three years service in backward areas were to get 30 marks. The scheme did not have a single taker.

“I say it with regret that our doctors have decided not to go to rural areas. Nobody has come forward to avail of the incentives offered by the Government,” Azad had said in Parliament last week.

Common MBBS, MD entrance tests from 2013

New Delhi: The proposed common exams for admission to MBBS and MD courses all over the country will be held from the next academic session, Health Ministry officials said.

The officials told MPs at the Consultative Committee Meeting on Health that the proposed common tests, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Undergraduate (NEET-UG) and Postgraduate (NEET-PG) medical courses, have been notified for commencement from 2013-14.

"The common entrance tests for admission to MBBS and MD courses have been notified on February 25, this year for commencement from academic year 2013-14," they said.

The NEET for admission to UG courses would be conducted by the CBSE and the NEET for PG courses would be carried out by the National Board of Examinations, they said. "The common entrance tests are aimed at mitigating the need of students to appear in multiple tests and promote merit in admission process," the officials said at the meeting presided over by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The tests, earlier notified by the Medical Council of India (MCI), were to be first conducted from the current session but have been postponed due to lack of preparedness on its part, they said.

The officials said that the Bachelor of Rural Healthcare Course, proposed by the government to tide over the shortage of medical professionals in rural areas, would prepare rural healthcare cadre to treat 'common ailments' and not all ailments requiring expertise.

The course, which is opposed by doctors, is under the consideration of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and has faced opposition from the Indian Medical Association, which says the course would lead to different standards of public health delivery for urban and rural populations.

Azad favours 6.5 year MBBS course

New Delhi: Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad favoured increasing the duration of the MBBS course from the existing 5.5 years to 6.5 years and said the Medical Council of India was working on the proposal.

"I don't mind increasing the duration of MBBS to 6.5 years. In the US, students have to go for six years of additional study as compared to Indian students to be able to prescribe medicines and practise. What is the harm in having one more year of MBBS study in India," he said when asked what the Government was doing about the proposed MCI move.
   
The Minister said mandatory rural posting for doctors was also being mulled. "Yes we are thinking on those lines. We are short of seven lakh doctors in villages," he said.    

The proposed one year increase in MBBS duration is being contemplated to set aside the additional year for mandatory rural service of MBBS graduates.
   
The proposal is to award the MBBS degree only after the completion of 5.5 years of regular MBBS course and one year of rural posting which would be linked to the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
   
The proposal comes in the wake of poor healthcare facilities in rural India and government aiming at providing better medical treatment and facilities to the rural population.
   
The government has also focussed much attention on its flagship NRHM program, on which a major chunk of the country's health budget is spent for provision of improved healthcare facilities in rural areas of the country. 

JIPMER invites application for MBBS programme

Puducherry: JIPMER, an institution of national importance invites application from aspiring students for its MBBS programme for the academic year 2012.

Online application will available from 28/3/2012 to 27/4/2012.

JIPMER will conduct all-India level exam on 27/5/2012 from 10:00 AM to 12:30PM.

Four medical students booked for ragging

Ghaziabad: Police have registered cases against four MBBS third year students for their alleged involvement in a case of ragging at a private medical college here.
 
The students, including one Nitin, were booked under the state anti-ragging act on a complaint filed by the victim Atshay Yadav, a second year student of Santosh Medical College, who accused them of physically torturing him in the hostel on February 22 and 23, police said.
 
Medical examination of the victim is being conducted and and further probe into the matter is on, they said.